Well-educated and rich in US? Has to be a Hindu
S Rajagopalan, The New Indian Express
February 29, 2008
http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEH20080228202512

Hindus in the US truly have something to brag about - they are the most educated among all religious groups and have the second highest income level, next only to the Jews.

A good 43 per cent of Hindus are earning over USD100,000 a year, compared to Jews who are marginally ahead of them with 46 per cent, according to the US Religious Landscape Survey, conducted by the Washington-based Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

How significant the take-home pay of the two communities is can be judged from the fact that just 18 per cent of all Americans make more than USD100,000 annually. The landmark survey, based on interviews with a nationally representative sample of over 35,000 adults, projects that Hindus top the education charts with 48 per cent having post-graduate degrees.

The Jews follow with 35 per cent, while the national average is just 11 per cent. Hindus, who account for just 0.4 per cent of the adult population in a country of 303 million people, can also boast of better matrimonial harmony on the basis of one important yardstick - they have the lowest divorced/separated rate (5 per cent) among all religious groups.

The survey, which claims to explore the “remarkable dynamism taking place in the US religious marketplace”, also reports that Hindus are the most likely to be married (78 per cent) - and to be married to someone within the faith (90 per cent).

Christians form the bulk of America’s population - 78.4 per cent. Of them, 51.3 per cent are Protestants, 23.9 per cent Catholics and the rest belong to a number of smaller Christian groups. Jews account for 1.7 per cent, while Muslims (0.6 per cent) are just a little more than the number of Hindus.